Dungeon victim tells frightening tale

NEW YORK — A fifth victim said she was dragged into a vehicle while walking near her Syracuse home, raped at an apartment and held for 10 months in John Jamelske's underground dungeon, police said Monday.

"I cried and prayed every day I was in captivity," the 50-year-old woman said in a statement read by Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh. "But I never cried in front of him again after he slapped me so hard that he injured my ear."

Jamelske, 67, of Dewitt, is being held in jail without bail on charges of kidnapping, rape, sodomy and sexual abuse. He was arrested April 7 for holding a 16-year-old girl hostage for nearly seven months in a two-room concrete bunker he built under the back yard of his suburban Syracuse home. The two small rooms contained a small tub, a bucket for a toilet, a microwave oven and a mattress.

Walsh said the woman was chained to a heavy metal grate for the first three months and was sexually abused every day of her captivity. Police, believing there are other victims, released photos of Jamelske for the first time.

Now, investigators are looking at a broader pool of potential victims since the woman is 50 years old. The others, according to investigators, were three teens and a young woman.